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Am new with ubuntu and I want to create a website so I don't know what's best for me ubuntu desktop or server

WinEunuuchs2Unix
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nextmarkzuckerberg
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4 Answers4

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Ubuntu Desktop is all the bells and whistles of Ubuntu. It has a graphic interface that is easy to use and a great environment. If you never used Ubuntu before I recommend you start with the Desktop operating system. After you get in the swing of things then you can try your hands at Ubuntu Server. Ubuntu Server is stripped of all the graphics and is meant to be controlled via command line. The nice thing about Ubuntu is that you can run it in a Virtual Machine if you wanted to, or install straight on a spare computer you have around the house. It's not resource intensive so you can install it on most desktops and laptops.

To install it locally on your machine you can use a program called Virtual Box created by Oracle. The same people who make Java. Here are the instructions: http://www.beopensource.com/2016/05/how-to-install-Ubuntu-1604-LTS-in-Virtual-Box-VmWare.html

Using this link: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-linux-apache-mysql-php-lamp-stack-on-ubuntu-16-04 you can deploy your very own web server.

Your server files will be located at /var/www/html and are viewable once apache2 is started. If you are doing this locally, then you will need to have the IP address. You can use ip addr in the terminal to view your IP address and then from any browser you can type http://###.###.###/index.html and you can see it.

I also recommend installing phpMyAdmin from this link here: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-and-secure-phpmyadmin-on-ubuntu-16-04 This will allow you to modify your MySQL databases easily in a web browser.

Using this link: http://linux-sys-adm.com/ubuntu-16.04-lts-how-to-install-and-configure-vsftpd-on-ubuntu/ will allow you to transfer files via SFTP with programs like FileZilla.

Harley Frank
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From the official Ubuntu Desktop for developers webpage:

Ubuntu is the world's most popular open source OS for development. Ubuntu is used by thousands of development teams around the world because of its versatility, reliability, constantly updated features, and extensive developer libraries.

Install Ubuntu Desktop and after rebooting it install the tasksel package from the default Ubuntu repositories. Install the LAMP server task in tasksel (LAMP server = Linux, Apache2, MySQL, PHP) by following the instructions in this answer.

karel
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The main difference is which software comes pre-installed, and how certain stuff is configured by default. Personally i'd go with the desktop edition, unless the machine will be running primarily as a server.

If you need to, you can easily install a web server (ie. apache), php, mysql/mariadb, and any other stuff you need to setup a web server environment on the same computer for testing purposes.

delt
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tl;dr: use Ubuntu Desktop.

In details, you should use:

  • Ubuntu Desktop if you need to develop web application/pages; e.g. if you have to write HTML, CSS, JS, PHP, Python, Java, C# files with a graphical text editor.
  • Ubuntu Server if you have a server PC and you want to install and serve the web application. You will configure HTTP server, a SQL database, containers, firewalls, SSH access, ecc.
davcri
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